WATERLOO, IOWA: The 20th Worldwide Two-Cylinder Club Expo was held on the final days of spring this year, at the historic National Cattle Congress grounds in Waterloo. Across the corner and not far down the street from this location is the site of the of the original plant where the Waterloo Boy, the Model “D”, and all of Waterloo’s Two-Cylinder and New Generation Tractors were built.

The Cattle Congress facilities serve as an ideal location for the annual Expo, as there is room for almost all of the restored tractor exhibits to be inside. Two buildings with a combined square footage of 80,000 work out just right for about 300 restored exhibits. Additional exhibits may be displayed under the protective overhangs at each end of Estel Hall, or outside on the turf in the choice of shade or full sun. Exhibitors obviously like it here, as about 85% of those surveyed have responded with the recommendation that it be adopted as the permanent site for all future Expos. About one out of seven suggest alternative locations, but most do not appear to have the advantages of being in Waterloo at the Cattle Congress grounds. It’s just hard to beat having restored exhibits safely inside, completely fenced and 24-hour guarded grounds, paved-surface swap meet and auction areas, and the opportunity (most years) to tour various John Deere manufacturing facilities.

Exhibitor input is of primary importance, so there is little reason to consider a move at this time. Expo XXI will be held right here next year on June 23, 24, and 25. That’s a week later on the calendar; a request from many exhibitors and potential exhibitors who tell us they “need another week in the fields.”

A huge number of photos are taken by Two-Cylinder at each Expo, and it s a tradition that several are selected totally at random (facing down, scattered on a 12-foot table) for inclusion in a followup article. It’s not easy to do that anymore, as the images are now digital and there is no need to make prints of each of them. So now we let the computer do the work, randomly selecting a scattering of numbers, and that’s how the photos that appear on the following pages were picked.

Although there is space indoors for about 300 exhibits, many choose an outside location (which will be expanded for 2011 and 2012). Among them were Mike & Bryan Koskela who, along with their family, brought this outstanding “720” on steel with two-way rollover integral disk plow all the way from Astoria, Oregon. A current-product display (partially seen in the background) was provided by Phelps Implement (four locations in Iowa).